• by Sara Guaglione , September 8, 2016

MPA - The Association of Magazine Media has formed MPA Next, a community for young professionals in the magazine media industry. MPA Next is open to those who work for an MPA member company with up to seven years of experience in the industry.

MPA Next aims to provide educational and networking opportunities to junior-level magazine media executives in noneditorial positions, such as advertising sales, marketing, public relations and corporate jobs. The organization will host workshops led by senior professionals in the magazine industry, lectures, forums, mixers and networking receptions.

Linda Thomas Brooks, president and CEO of MPA –The Association of Magazine Media, told Publishers Daily the model for MPA Next came from ASME Next, an organization from American Society of Magazine Editors targeting magazine editors with up to five years' experience.

While ASME Next is for employees in editorial positions, MPA Next is for “everyone else” in the industry.

“Folks who are younger in their careers need a place to talk, learn from and meet with their peers across the industry,” Thomas Brooks said.

Ideally, MPA Next and ASME Next will host joint events a few times a year, she said.

“Senior executives get to mingle with each other a lot, but younger people in the business didn’t have that many opportunities. We want to put them together,” Thomas Brooks added.

MPA Next is being led by young MPA employees, like Skye Rubel, communications and events coordinator at MPA.

Rubel told PD she hopes the organization will encourage employees to get to know their peers with similar titles at other companies — both big and small — as well as become equipped with “tools to succeed in this industry.”